Padula: What does your trusted doctor think about cannabis?

By Gregg Padula columnist

Thursday

Aug 9, 2018 at 4:35 PMAug 9, 2018 at 4:36 PM

We're more than a month into retail cannabis being legal, although it is still uncertain when sales will actually begin under the new state legalities. Those awarded licenses must now begin the long and winding bureaucratic journey to legal sale.

And while storefront sale may be more than a month away, it got me thinking. It's going to take a while -- a lot longer than a month -- for a lot of the stigmas and social awkwardness to fade away. We're talking a lot more to each other in this state about cannabis and the many issues around the plant, but there's still one person I have a hard time talking to about it -- my doctor.

I’ve been seeing the same physician for almost 15 years – during which time a lot of uncomfortable topics have come up – believe me. And the doctor has never batted an eyelash, yet the awkwardness and resistance which appear any time I bring up medical cannabis seems comedic in context to the slew of much more serious conversations. The off-limits area has been respected for the most part.

In America, we have close relationships with our doctors. We rely on licensed physicians to provide us with an accurate diagnosis and the safest treatment possible. Often, nervous patients won’t even bring up cannabis as an option for fear of damaging their relationship with that doctor -- as if they’ll become a stoner in the doctor’s eyes.

Have you ever tried to start up a conversation with your primary care physician regarding cannabis? Inquiries are dodged with skill. They recoil, nervously steamrolling through the inquiry.

If a patient who has generally opposed medicinal cannabis use becomes curious in learning about the potential benefits of the plant, that tiny curiosity can quickly revert back to opposition if their doctor’s response is at all perceived as negative or condescending. This is unfortunate, as the doctor is mostly sighing out of frustration in their legal limitations on speaking of the plant, rather than any doubt in its medicinal properties.

I don’t feel as though this is spoken of much, like America in general is afraid to ask questions in the faces of those we rely on for staying alive. This interaction is where the rejection of medical cannabis remains preserved. To make things even more complicated, a physician’s resistance to speaking of cannabis is not actually indicative of their stance on its efficacy as a wellness tool.

So, why is it that the majority of physicians won’t speak candidly about cannabis? This is a rather complicated issue.

A study published in 2013 in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine provided amazing insight to what doctors think about cannabis’ medical benefits. Eighty percent believed that cannabis education should be incorporated into medical school curricula, 82 percent believed that it should be included in family practice residency training and 92 percent agreed that continuing medical education on medical cannabis should be made available to them.

The same study also revealed that a lack of education in the area of medical cannabis is the primary cause of physicians' discomfort in recommending the alternative treatment to patients. Also, since they are not allowed to prescribe cannabis, federal law keeps physicians at arm’s length when it comes to suggesting dosages, ingestion methods and strains.

Essentially, what this study concluded was that most licensed physicians acknowledge legitimate medical uses for cannabis -- but just aren’t allowed to advocate for it under federal law. This, in the wake of the first cannabis-based medicine’s approval for use in the United States -- Epidiolex, approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is for the treatment of two rare and severe forms of epilepsy, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS) and Dravet syndrome, for patients from the age of 2.

Study after study proving there are compounds in cannabis that have been shown very successful in specific ailments shouldn’t be taboo. Do not be afraid to address it with your physician. As the study described above, they aren’t dodging the issue because they are looking down on you -- they’re reacting that way due to their lack of information on the subject and feel the more unethical part would be providing you with information not deemed medically sound by the FDA.

Gregg Padula is an employee of GateHouse Media New England. He has experience in several areas of the cannabis industry, and now serves as an advocate for both patients' and workers’ rights. He can be reached at gpadula@wickedlocal.com.